Clerical / Research

Offices and libraries are often quiet work environments and can be well suited to someone who prefers to work independently. Administrative support, library, editing, and research positions may also involve considerable computer work, which may be appealing to some students. This type of work environment can be predictable and low-stress, or can require significant flexibility and customer service skills, so it is important to accurately assess the student’s strengths and desires when deciding if a job is a good fit. Consider what kinds of office, computer, and research tasks the student enjoys, and what skills could be learned with minimal training.

Teaching Ideas

Click on the icons below for detailed information on how to teach this skill.

Guiding Questions

  • Will this environment fit the student’s strengths and interests?
  • Will the environment provide either too much or too little stimulation, thus interfering with performance?
  • Will the student achieve competence with the specific set of job duties within this job in a short period of time? If not, is it possible to adapt duties so that he can succeed while fulfilling the supervisor’s expectations for quantity and quality of work? 
  • Am I arranging visual supports so that the student is self-sufficient for the long term?
  • Am I careful to avoid requiring too much ‘natural’ support from supervisors and co-workers?
Visual Supports
Communication Systems & Scripts
Communication systems and scripts provide the student with a means to initiate communication. Use these cards to practice different scenarios with your students.

 
Schedules are visual supports that organize the school or work day and tell the student where he will go that day.  Schedules help focus attention on the sequence of places and events.
To-Do Lists
The to-do list (also referred to as a "work system"or "activity system") visually clarifies a series of activities that a student is to do.
Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers can provide a student with a way to represent and organize concepts, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and potential outcomes.
Social Narratives
Social narratives are a set of tools that visually represent social situations and appropriate social behaviors. The social narrative connects the important details of a setting or social situation to support the student in understanding the social context and in developing a new social skill.
Visual Cues
Visual Cues are learning materials that students can keep with them to help guide them through real life situations.
Video modeling involves the use of video recording as a teaching tool. It involves a student watching a video of the appropriate performance of a task (expected behavior) prior to practicing or potentially using the skill in natural settings.
Environmental Design

Does the design of space and furniture help the student focus on the tasks and behaviors expected in the setting?

Employers are often very responsive to our efforts to adapt the environment to improve work performance. If you can see how to adjust where a task is done, if you can see how to move furniture to reduce distractions, if you can see how to organize materials to reduce transition distance and increase worker speed, you are the employer’s best friend.  If moving a work station or adding a partition in a key spot will improve speed and          quality, there is a good chance that discussion with the employer or supervisor about such adjustments will be met with a willingness to adapt.

Does the environmental design address student issues with proximity to others or even distractibility that may reduce performance (working close to others may set up too much interaction)?

In many offices, copy machines, scanner/fax machines, postage machines, etc. are in a common area and may be close to office mail boxes. Consider how you might, with the support of the supervisor, segment the space to support the student’s focus (and others’ focus for that matter). Will the rotation of a work table by 90 degrees create separate space and reduce the likelihood of distracting physical proximity? If available, partitions can serve to segment space and reduce distractions.

The copy machine may be in a high traffic area that may lead to interruptions or distraction. There may be a way to partition or separate the ‘copying’ space from other office functions and responsibilities. You can work with the supervisor to create an individual work station in close proximity to the equipment the student will use.

It may be important to limit the number of interactions with customers by adapting environmental design to reduce likelihood of interaction

Is the space designed to support independent movement both within and between tasks?

Look carefully at the distance between spaces in a work site. If materials for a task are in two separate areas, these may be reorganized for ease of access and closer proximity to where the work is completed. You may be able to adjust the places where work is done so that the student moves quickly between and within activities. Employers respond positively to suggestions of arrangement that will make workers more efficient.

Are there clear separate spaces for different contexts or sets of activities (i.e., place to take a break vs. work spaces vs. place for belongings, etc.)?

Most employment settings have a separate break and/or lunch area. Having separate spaces for work and for break, for belongings and for lunch, will help in defining what the student does in each space.